Description
Book SynopsisStradling shows how New York's varied landscape and abundant resources have played a fundamental role in shaping the state's culture and economy. Simultaneously, he underscores the extent to which New Yorkers have changed the landscape of the state.
Trade ReviewA focused, accessible, and comprehensive environmental history. The bibliographic essay is particularly helpful and the text is well-complemented by 12 color plates and 30 figures and maps. The narrative flows as swiftly as any Catskills mountain stream.
-- Lawrence C. Swayne * Kaatskill Life *
In what proved to be a brilliant paring of project and author, Cornell University Press invited David Stradling to write 'an accessible, comprehensive environmental history of New York State.' The resulting book stands as an exemplary stae-focused history. It is also a book brimming with insights into the complex relationship between technology and the environment... an outstanding work of environmental history.
-- Jeffrey K. Stine * Technology and Culture *
Stradling examines virtually every major environmental issue in U.S. history from the point of view of how it played out in the state of New York. In some cases, the environmental actions of such New York men as the Roosevelts and Bob Marshall of The Wilderness Society influenced the whole country.... Stradling's scope runs from the effects of the Erie Canal in producing the market revolution to the pollution by chemical industries that caused the Love Canal crisis.... This accessible, gracefully written book meets its goal and will be especially useful for students of New York history.
* Choice *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Nature Is on the Side of New York1. This Comes of Settling a Country: European Colonization and the Market's Arrival
2. This Wilderness Becomes a Fertile Plain: Engineering the Empire State
3. We Are Still in Eden: Romanticism, Tourism, and the Power of Culture
4. Tainted and Unwholesome Atmospheres: Urban Environments, Government, and Reform5. A Sound Conservation Program: Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Power of Individuals
6. Tracing Man's Progress in Making the Planet Uninhabitable: Environmental Interest Groups and Postwar Threats
7. We Live in This Filth: The Urban Crisis, Environmental Justice, and Threats from Beyond
Epilogue: Finding Places in History
Notes
Bibliographical Essay
Index
